News Bulletin

Defense spending goals were a real hot button during this week's NATO Summit. Trump said if allies will work on this the U.S. will stay in NATO after all. Macron and Merkel said they have been working on this and are going to keep working on it. Trump then mentioned doubling defense spending goals, and everyone was like, ‘We would need to have more meetings about that.’


Eritrea and Ethiopia have been fighting over their border for years. A few days ago they resolved this dispute with an agreement to reopen embassies, re-link transport and telecommunications, and generally cooperate more. Ethiopia is a big Western and China ally, and Eritrea is cozy with the U.A.E., so this change could help lots of people be better friends.


Since becoming Nicaragua's president for the second time in 2006, Daniel Ortega has been increasingly authoritarian. Most business people have sort of been letting it go and sticking to an unofficial deal to focus on business. Lately he’s been taking things too far with some unfriendly crackdowns on protestors. Unrest is increasing and the economy is not. Business people are now telling him to hold early elections.

Python: my coding adventures

Currently, I am taking a class on Python programming. Because coding is a big time skill these days, right? Everyone should know a little bit about it.

‘Really, Lauren? Aren’t summer classes condensed and therefore more challenging – and won’t this class be extra difficult since you don’t know anything about computer programming?’

‘Yes, dear reader. Such grounded, obvious insights are the very foundation of our friendship. Taking this class was one of my top worst ideas.’

print(‘Help!’)  - hehehe, it’s a little Python joke!

The first half-hour of the first class seemed OK. Since then I’ve lived in a state of confusion. 

It’s like if you’re standing at the foot of the hill and a small pebble rolls down and hits your shoe. After picking it up and looking at it for a minute, it seems pretty understandable, a normal, small rock; it’s hard but not that hard. Then an avalanche deafeningly buries you and you die.

If everyone else in the class wasn’t pounding the daylights out of their keyboards like Hugh Jackman in Swordfish, I would insist programming is one of the great challenges known to mankind. The tools at one’s disposal when learning a spoken language are ripped away. It’s you and the screen with its infernal blinking cursor ignoring your animated charades and attempts to point out YouTube research and looking up of concepts on coding forums.

Once after class I asked the professor for help on code I thought was quite close to correct. By the end of the conversation he was almost certainly thinking about retirement.

The professor gives the class starting code (great) peppered with little questions (not great), for which I never have appropriate answers.

    #  allwords.append(words) # why doesn't this work? I AM NOT CONVINCED ANYONE KNOWS.
    allwords.extend(words) # this does...

    # allwords = allwords + words  # does work - but why is this inefficient? I CAN ONLY DESIRE THAT IT WORKS. CAN PROCESS OPTIMIZATIONS BE DISCUSSED AT A LATER TIME.

There have been a few rays of hope.

A few days ago I met with my partner for our final project and typed out a working draft of our (very simple) needed code in about 15 minutes. All is well! I DID learn! I felt like watching Swordfish again to figure out what Hugh was up to.

Then I tried to do more homework, leading to the aforementioned conversation with Prof. L.

But whatever. Challenges are good, and I’m glad I ended daily conversations with myself deciding to stick with the class. I like knowing more about the scenes behind our screens; plus, it’s always important to keep terrifying pushing ourselves. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, ‘Do one thing every day that makes you want to claw out your eyes.’

Passage to India

Apologies, Mr Forrester, for copying your book title. I read it before going to India and copy with the utmost respect.

I went to India for work and have some things to share!! Because it is a truth universally acknowledged an internet peruser in possession of a few spare minutes must be in want of travel stories and pictures. (hahahaha! Another clever literary adaptation! Ahem. Sorry, Ms Austen.)

The visit was only for a week, so no pretentious travel reflections here. I estimate having 5-7 seconds of worthwhile India knowledge to offer and therefore shall now present surface-level observations and pictures.

Traffic 

video: taking a Tuk Tuk

One time we missed an exit. Our cab driver backed up on the side of the interstate, held his hand out the window to stop 5 lanes of traffic, and we drove across the freeway to the needed exit.

We visited an agricultural village and learned about water rights, seeds, and GMOs in a community with 800 years of farming history. A family in the village is in charge of tracking history and genealogy.

We visited several organizations focused on food security and social initiatives throughout the week - like Goonj, a recycling organization which brings clothes/necessities to rural villages.

 My friend Nitya, who I met on a volunteer program in Spain (see this post). Before traveling to India, I recommend meeting someone on a volunteer program who is lovely, will meet you for touring, and bring you to their friends' house for dinner.

 Jaipur spice market.
We kept catching ourselves describing food as 'spicy' and having to clarify spicy -> full of spices vs spicy -> hot.


Ahmedabad market

 On a scale of 1 to 87, my Ahmedabad hotel room was an 88!
The House of MG, a former haveli (traditional house/mansion), is beautiful. The hotel probably made a mistake in awarding me this room, but one musn't complain.

I hope this is not an un-PC observation, but seeing cows everywhere filled me with joy. They cross the road... lay on the road... generally hanging out with confidence and dignity.

Favorite cow sighting - 

a casual stroll through the Jaipur market.

Sulabh International. Another social innovation organization.


Humayan's tomb
Delhi

Taj Mahal
(Everyone calls it 'the Taj'. Sound like someone who knows things by saying, 'I went to the Taj.')
The outside of the Taj is peaceful, the inside mirrors a Delhi traffic jam. Everyone shoves each other around while police blow whistles to keep everyone shoving, flustered, and not taking pictures.

 Me at the Taj


 Cows outside the Taj

Other assorted pictures